The refrain from today’s psalm is “I will sing of your salvation.” Will you? If you are the average Catholic your answer might be “yes” but I wonder what you answer would be if the question was “Will you sing of your salvation outside of Mass or your shower?” Granted we all sound great in the shower, but we are more reluctant to sing at all apart from the choir of the faithful or our personal Niagara Falls.
Are you willing to sing of your salvation, to give witness, in the public forum when all eyes are upon you? How about in the local WalMart or Wegmans? Your average Catholic only needs to stand next to a born-again, evangelical Christian to understand how private we are about our life in faith. Of course, you’re thinking, “All that public praying and witnessing, that’s their thing. Our faith is more discrete, more private, more, well…… more sophisticated than asking someone in the local WalMart if they had been saved. Ours is a faith steeped in tradition, liturgy, sacraments. This is how we serve the Lord.”
In today’s first reading we are challenged – or we should be – when the prophet Isaiah tells us: “It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant…. I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” A servant can be present, silently present, taking it all in, but never part of the conversation. Yes, we are called to be servants, but we are also called to be more. Called to moments in our lives, when Virtue shines through, and we also called to testify. Called to testify as did John the Baptist and the Saints. And not in whispered voices, but loud and proud in the public square of our life. Giving testimony and singing of their salvation, well… that is part of what it means to be Christian, to be a believer.
Maybe there is no word more terrifying in the Catholic psyche than “testify.” To stand up and give a witness for Christ. It’s not what we do. Yet, such testimony can move us. We hear the stories of lives changed and uplifted by the grace and mercy of Christ. At our deepest core we connect to the story. We are moved, inspired…but like I said, it’s not what we Catholics do. It is not “our thing.”.
I mean, what if we opened our mouths and looked like fools? What if we did more harm than good? What if people laughed, or even worse… ignored us? What if we just aren’t important enough, or faithful enough, or nice enough for our stories to matter? Can’t we just be present, silently present, taking it all in?
“It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant, …I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” (Isa 49:6)
St. Peter was pretty sure he was up to the task. The story of Holy Week will reveal a different story. In the gospel reading, Peter gave some bold witness and testimony: “I will lay down my life for you!” Words uttered in the private gathering of the last supper faded pretty quickly by the cold light of an evening fire when the only thing that was sung was a rooster’s song and Peter’s denials. Not the testimony he was planning, nor capable of. There in the courtyard of the High Priest he tried to be silent. When challenged he recanted his identity, but all is not lost. He will come to understand the meaning of the Psalm verse that truly Jesus is his “rock of refuge, a stronghold to give [him] safety, for [Jesus is his] rock and his fortress.”
Let us remember that it is good to be a servant to the Lord Jesus, but remember there will come the time when the light of our service will not be enough, the light of our spoken witness is needed. It might be as simple as when someone asks you why you serve so generously and you reply: “The love of Jesus compels me.”
When that moment comes, sing of your salvation.
Image credit: Prophet Isaiah, Mosaic, Right of Lunette, South Wall of Presbytery, Basilica of San Vitale | PD-US